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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Nets coach Avery Johnson Fired

Avery Johnson was fired by the Brooklyn Nets and assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo was promoted to interim head coach. The Nets will let Carlesimo coach in the short-term, but GM Billy King is expected to talk with several candidates about taking over the job on a full-time basis, sources told Yahoo! Sports. If the players respond to Carlesimo and the team gathers momentum, there's a chance Carlesimo could finish the season.

The Nets (14-14) squandered an 11-4 start, have lost 10 of 13 games in December and are currently 6½ games behind the New York Knicks in the Atlantic Division. One of those losses was an embarrassing outing against the Boston Celtics on Christmas, a 93-76 loss.

Johnson was 60-116 since becoming the Nets' head coach in 2010.

Carlesimo has been a head coach in Portland, Golden State and Oklahoma City.

The Nets made a big push in the offseason to become contenders in the East, re-signing Deron Williams to a five-year, $98.8 million deal and trading for Joe Johnson, who had four years and nearly $90 million left on his contract.

Williams sat out of Wednesday's loss to the Milwaukee Bucks with a sore wrist, an injury he aggravated Tuesday against the Celtics.